upliance.ai, the developers behind India’s first AI Cooking Assistant, entirely conceived, manufactured, and crafted within India, has witnessed a surge in demand subsequent to its recent showcase on Season 3 of Shark Tank and a well-timed INR 34 Crore funding infusion from Khosla Ventures just last month. With sales of over 200 units priced at INR 23999 per unit cost, the brand has witnessed a sales surge of a significant increase of 243% in sales. The company is valued at a valuation of INR 143 crores, as opposed to their initial ask at Shark Tank of INR 100 crores.
Post the appearance on the investment show, the company became viral across online platforms with a key focus on the customer community and digital KOLs. The website traffic also witnessed a 13x rise in unique visitors. Social media engagement increased, with 120x growth in monthly gained followers on Instagram and a spike on their YouTube channel.
Co-founders Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma articulated their strategic outlook, expressing, “We are thrilled to witness the heightened interest in our products following our feature on Shark Tank. The substantial increase in both sales and social media engagement serves as a strong affirmation of the value we bring to Indian homes, reinforcing our steadfast vision for the future. This positive momentum propels us towards an expansive trajectory; our goal is comprehensive growth. Looking ahead, our focus is on expanding into new markets, increasing revenue, and achieving economies of scale, ultimately driving profitability company-wide.”
Having already sold over 900 units and solidified a robust market position with widespread appeal, the Bengaluru-based brand is now strategically expanding towards accelerating product expansion. This involves significant investments in tooling and advanced manufacturing techniques. Leveraging the raised capital, the company aims to build an agile and skilled team while exploring collaborations with content creators to enhance marketing efforts. The strategic expansion plan includes scaling manufacturing, and establishing a robust presence in over 10,000 stores nationwide, supported by 30 company-owned experience centres. This forward-looking vision signifies the next significant chapter in upliance.ai‘s journey within the dynamic realm of innovative home tech solutions
Having navigated Shark Tank successfully and backed by notable investors like Rainmatter, Rukam Capital, Draper Associates, and now Khosla Ventures, upliance.ai is poised to emerge as India’s fastest-growing D2C hardware startup.
About upliance.ai:
Founded by IIT Bombay alumni, Mahek Mody, ex-chief of Staff at Ather Energy, and Mohit Sharma, ex-head of Engineering at Chaayos, upliance.ai builds home appliances that integrate both machine learning and artificial intelligence to level up Indian homes. The company’s flagship device, upliance, an AI Cooking Assistant uses a proprietary model, UpAI, specially designed to comprehend the nuances of food, cooking, and kitchen tasks and execute them autonomously. The upliance was launched in January 2023 and is available across nearly 1000 homes in India and has cooked over 35,000 meals since.
